One working mama learning to run & to maintain my 100+ pound weight loss!

Weekly Wrap Up: Norway!

by littlemoreeachday on July 11, 2016

Last week, I skipped wrap up both because of the holiday and because I was on a cruise ship in Norway for what is possibly my best vacation ever! We did a 7 day cruise on the Disney Magic from Copenhagen Denmark with stops at 4 towns in Norway. I saw fjords, waterfalls and gorgeous architecture. I hiked (and learned that the Norwegian line between “moderate hike” and “mountain goat-like scrambling” is in a different place than I would draw it) and read books and enjoyed my family. It was fantastic and according to my husband, I did my best job relaxing ever. 🙂 I know – relaxing is a weird thing not to be good at, but I struggle.We had some really fantastic character interactions and some equally fun adult only fun, like a whiskey tasting class. Oliver traveled like a champ and we all came back from vacation jet lagged, but still liking each other and wanting to go back (both wins in my book!).

I cannot tell you how beautiful it was in adequate words. Breathtaking for sure – and literally in some instances. My activity over the week I was on vacation included lots of hiking, including a two hour trip up to Pulpit Rock (more on that later!) and a trip to the top of a gorgeous waterfall in Geiranger.

I made it a goal to take the stairs everywhere on the boat and am proud to say that I didn’t use the elevator once! My other goal was no soda and I succeeded on that front as well. I think my biggest NSV though was the number of things I tasted but didn’t finish because they weren’t that good. Huge vacation win! I indulged in yummy treats, for sure, and tried lots of local foods, but skipped the things that were so-so or that I could get at home. Every day I had tons of stairs and easily over 10,000 steps a day, so I came home feeling good about my eating and activity on the trip. I also felt good about all of the smiles I generated with my good deed for the week: complimenting every kid on their costume on the boat. My favorite was the very cool 4 year old girl dressed as Captain Hook. She wore that outfit several times on the trip but she rocked it every time. 🙂

When we returned home, we spent Thursday resting and recovering and Friday I was back to work. I got in a nice hilly walk Friday and then spent Saturday at a running retreat I’d registered for a few months ago. The timing was not great as I was still feeling the swaying of the boat and travel-related bloating, but I’m glad I made myself go. I was worried about being the heaviest or the slowest person there as it is put on by a relatively elite local women’s running group. However, it was really full of people of a wide variety of abilities. We did a short group run on a country road (and I had a lot of fun with the other “turtles”), as well as a boot camp class, running drills and a yoga class. There were also talks on nutrition and safety. I won a handful of gels too, including the Clif mocha flavored gels that I love and a new kind I hadn’t tried before – Ignite Reload energy gels. I’ll let you guys know how I like them once I test them out. All in all, I was glad I went because it got my mind in a good place to think about marathon training starting 8/1. That’s three weeks away! Ahhh!

Sunday, I marveled at my sore legs and abs after the retreat’s boot camp and yoga – I definitely need more core and strength work in my life! We also went out for a family walk to catch Pokemon, figuring the new game was a good way to get my whole little family out and a little active. Neither Darrell or I were ever into Pokemon, being a little too old to have caught that phase I think, but it was still sort of fun to play along and Oliver was fascinated by the invisible little creatures in our neighborhood that you could only see through the phone. I also spent some time yesterday looking at my marathon training plan, re-reading some nutrition guides and outlining a three week warm up to get me ready to go. Despite my leaden run on Saturday at the running retreat, I’m feeling ready to get back into the swing of training again!

I’m grateful we got to go on such a fabulous vacation and that we’re all safely back home. Now it’s time to settle back down to regular workouts and non-vacation eating. Thanks as always to Holly and Tricia for hosting our link-up!

Like this:

Related

16 responses to “Weekly Wrap Up: Norway!”

Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous! I would LOVE to go to Norway someday – add that to the bucket list 🙂 How cute that the kids wore their costumes on the cruise, too. I totally hear you on not being good at relaxing… Maybe it’s a mom thing? My brain is super hard to shut down. So great job making yourself relax and get all rested and ready for your upcoming marathon training!

I have never visited Norway but your photos are beautiful. Glad you enjoyed the trip and it is a great idea to have a plan ahead of time about what you will do for fitness / how you will manage the food & drink, etc.
I have not done a running clinic but would love to.

Oslo may be my favorite place of all time. I had no idea that DIsney cruised there! How cool to go on a running retreat. Sounds really fun and I’d have the same reservations you did. Fear of being the slowest! HA!

We didn’t get Oslo unfortunately but the whole trip went so well I’m mentally starting planning for a trip to go back to Norway and hit Oslo, as well as all of the things O wasn’t quite old enough for!

Gorgeous photos! Sounds like a really awesome vacation! I’m impressed you went on a running retreat just days after you got back. It sounds like a great experience. I’d like to go to a running retreat like that too. Excited for you that your training starts soon!

Beautiful photos. It sounds like a lovely cruise. And, hooray for a restful vacation. It is hard to relax! I tend to want to go, go, go. The running retreat sounds great. I’d love to be able to do that one day. How exciting you’ll start marathon training on 8/1. I’ll be following along. Thanks for linking, Jessica.